Overdue water bill

The water bill that the city of Rensselaer owes the city of Troy has Collar City politicians feuding.

Democratic Councilman John Brown shot back Monday at Republican Mayor Harry Tutunjian regarding a possible deal with Rensselaer. Tutunjian issued a statement Friday lambasting Brown about wanting to get too little money from Rensselaer to settle the bill and drop Troy’s legal action.

“When Mayor Tutunjian was first elected he promised in his very first State of the City in 2004 to collect the unpaid water debt Rensselaer owed. Not only has that not happened, but the debt has grown substantially and bills continue to go unanswered. The only action as far as I could see was an election year lawsuit, but no real progress,” Brown said.

The councilman continues to state “he intends to collect every single dollar owed for the water delivered to Rensselaer and any proposal must begin there. The original proposal by Tutunjian’s administration called for a large down-payment, and yearly payments to pay down the balance.

Rensselaer’s current proposal reflects the original offer by Mayor Tutunjian in June of 2007:

– Rensselaer will make an upfront down payment of approximately $600,000

-Rensselaer will establish a separate account where the money for future water payment would essentially be in a dedicated “lock box” and these funds would be electronically transferred to Troy.

“The people elected me to get things accomplished. I’m not going to sit on my hands when millions of dollars could be recouped by simply picking up the phone or sitting down to open a dialogue. We can add an additional $1.5 million in the water fund for 2008 if we proceed with a settlement.”